Thursday, January 26, 2017

I’ve been struggling to come
up with a topic for this week’s blog, partly because I’m engrossed in writing
about a new character called Wolfman, partly because Michael and I are plotting
a thriller (note: plotting, not pantsing), and partly because I’m genuinely
afraid that some of the world’s most powerful leaders are so narcissistic that
they couldn’t care if they stuff up the world.

Wolfman

I spent some time outlining
a blog that was a take-off of a Trump speech, except that it was how Michael
and I were the best mystery novelists ever, that our sales numbers were so
great that the trees harvested for the paper for the books was contributing to
climate change . . . . . . . Then I realised no one would believe what I was
writing because there is no such thing as climate change. So I abandoned that one.

I then spent several hours
researching various articles, trying to gain insight into the mind of Donald
Trump.(I really did this
research!)My friend Dr. Anthony Gear
suggested that Trump could well be suffering from Syphilis.This is what Wikipedia says of the disease:

The Symptoms of the disease first
appear from 10 to 30 years after infection. Incipient GPI is usually manifested
by neurasthenic difficulties, such as fatigue, headaches, insomnia, dizziness,
etc. As the disease progresses, mental deterioration and personality changes
occur. Typical symptoms include loss of social
inhibitions, asocial behavior, gradual impairment of judgment, concentration
and short-term memory, euphoria, mania, depression, or apathy. Subtle
shivering, minor defects in speech and Argyll Robertson pupil may become
noticeable.

Delusions, common as the illness
progresses, tend to be poorly systematized and absurd. They can be grandiose,
melancholic, or paranoid. These delusions include ideas of great wealth,
immortality, thousands of lovers, unfathomable power, apocalypsis, nihilism,
self-blame, or bizarre hypochondriacal complaints.

The only issue is whether
Trump’s social behaviour ever made him susceptible to contracting a Sexually
Transmitted Disease.

Then I read a fascinating
article in The Atlantic, written by Dan P McAdams in the middle of last year titled
The Mind of Donald Trump.You
can read it here – it is well worth the time.

In predicting what sort of president Trump
would be, he wrote:

In sum, Donald Trump’s basic personality traits
suggest a presidency that could be highly combustible. One possible yield is an
energetic, activist president who has a less than cordial relationship with the
truth. He could be a daring and ruthlessly aggressive decision maker who
desperately desires to create the strongest, tallest, shiniest, and most
awesome result—and who never thinks twice about the collateral damage he will
leave behind. Tough. Bellicose. Threatening. Explosive.

By this time, I was deeply depressed. Everything I had read or watched reinforced rather than dispelled my belief that Trump is mentally unstable. As I sat in the dark late last night, I wondered whether he and like-minded, self-important leaders would lead us into times of horror. I had no doubt they could! But would they? Time will tell.

How I felt after my research

I don't enjoy writing when I'm down in the dumps, so I decided to write about something completely different. About something I love; something from the world of nature.

I’d like to introduce you to
the Central African Horror Frog (with thanks to New Scientist for the
information).It is about 11 centimetres
long (4.5 inches), so no puny amphibian.As Pliny the Elder
once wrote: “Ex Africa semper aliquid novi.”

Trichobatrachus robustus is
a bizarre, hairy
frog with cat-like extendable claws.When it is threatened, scientists speculate, it actively breaks its own
bones to produce claws that puncture their way out of its toe pads.

Horror frog

Horror frog

At rest, the
claws ofT. robustus, found on the hind feet only, are nestled
inside a mass of connective tissue. A chunk of collagen forms a bond between
the claw’s sharp point and a small piece of bone at the tip of the frog’s toe.

The other end of the claw is connected
to a muscle. . . . . .when the animal is attacked, it contracts this muscle,
which pulls the claw downwards. The sharp point then breaks away from the bony
tip and cuts through the toe pad, emerging on the underside.

Yikes!

The end result may look like a cat’s claw, but the breaking and
cutting mechanism is very different and unique among vertebrates.

Also unique is the fact that the claw is just bone and does not
have an outer coating of keratin like other claws do.

In Cameroon, apparently the horror frogs are roasted and eaten. I hope their hunters have heavy gloves and iron stomachs.

Has this man eaten a horror frog? Or just read about Trump?

I'm pleased I found out about the horror frog, because I have learnt something.Next time I am
attacked, I’ll break my fingers.That
way, I’ll pass out and won’t be aware of what’s happening to me.

5 comments:

Stan, delighted to hear that you and Michael are pantsing your way through a summary of that thriller that I am so looking foward to. I was agreeing totally with the syphillus diagnosis until I got to the term "self-doubt." If only!!

So glad you got the Trump research out of the way before I show up on your doorstep. We will speak of many things, of cabbages and kings. But NOT the Tweeter-in-Chief.

I feel a lot of angst KNOWING that the President of the United States is mentally ill. You just know he's going to tweet the nuclear code one day, or unintentionally declare and thus start a war with China through a tweet sent at 3 am. Insomnia is a symptom of what again? And that frog is just awesome.

Amphibians I thought represented an evolutionary step up out of the swamp, and horror frog is clearly unique. But then there's Pepe the Frog, symbol of all that's poised and prepared to drag civilization back into a noticeably undrained swamp. And it's only getting deeper.